Tuesday December 2nd 2025
Arcangelo playing in Rosslyn Chapel
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
A new film showing an award-winning ensemble – including a former pupil at Roslin Primary School – shot on location at Rosslyn Chapel and Roslin Primary School, has been released.
The film features the GRAMMY-nominated ensemble Arcangelo, including former Roslin Primary School pupil and violinist Colin Scobie, in performances of traditional Scots folk tunes arranged three hundred years ago by Francesco Barsanti, a travelling Italian musician who came to Edinburgh to find his fortune.
Blending concert film and documentary, the film also follows Colin as he returns to the modern-day Roslin Primary School, and uncovers some of the beautiful musical features of Rosslyn Chapel in the company of The Countess of Rosslyn.
Julian Forbes, General Manager of Arcangelo, said:
“As we looked further into Barsanti’s music and the historical background, we realised that our project was nothing new at all, but a continuation. Barsanti and his patrons at the Edinburgh Music Society were reinvigorating musical traditions – ‘the ancient Scots tunes’ – by making them available in a published edition suitable for domestic use and adapted to prevailing Baroque fashions.
“They wanted this music to be played, to be shared, and to be spread. And our fortuitous choice of Rosslyn Chapel also revealed itself to be no simple accident. For we learned that this beautiful place was of founding importance to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries’ decisive rediscovery of Scottish culture, an inspiration to Burns, to Scott, and to a host of visual artists.”
One of the players, Colin Scobie, was a pupil at Roslin Primary School between 1995 and 2000. A sought-after specialist in period performance (Arcangelo, OAE, Scottish Ensemble) and chamber music (Maxwell Quartet, Fitzwilliam Quartet), he is also a natural and creative exponent of traditional Scottish fiddle-playing.
Rosslyn Chapel was founded in 1446 by Sir William St Clair. It is renowned for its medieval stone carvings, including angels – the ‘heavenly host’ – playing musical instruments; at the very top of three pillars in the Lady Chapel, close to the carving of the Nativity, are angels singing and playing instruments including a lute, violin, drum and bagpipes.
Lady Rosslyn said:
“The motto for Arcangelo’s films is “extraordinary music in extraordinary places” and we were all delighted to welcome such talented musicians to play a most appropriate selection of pieces in the extraordinary setting of Rosslyn Chapel.”
Watch the 30-minute film below.
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